Letters to the Editor 12/7/17

While Big Marijuana pours millions into Illinois to legalize marijuana, leftist lawmakers, giddy about a tiny new revenue source to aid their insatiable spending, ignore the unmistakable damage legalization is causing in Colorado. Those nasty facts are hard to escape.

Colorado now ranks #1 in the entire nation for marijuana use among teens, scoring 55 percent above the national average, according to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health.

Colorado high school drug violations have increased 71 percent and suspensions for drugs have increased 45 percent since legalization.

Based on alarming research by the Denver Post, drivers in fatal car crashes who tested positive doubled since legalization.

Residential neighborhoods reek of marijuana, as do warehouse growing operations along major freeways. As if that isn’t enough, the Colorado homelessness growth rate now ranks among the highest in the country.

The bottom line is this: Does Illinois want more drugged drivers on our roads, more buzzed employees on job sites, and more stoned students in our homes and schools?

If the answer is no, don’t remain silent. Tell your state representative and senator to oppose legalization efforts before it is too late.Kathy ValenteDirector of Operations, Illinois Family InstituteTinley Park

CITY MANIPULATES COUNCIL?

If the city manipulated the council to avoid picking a low-bid contractor to supply coal, the mayor has put the City of Springfield in a potentially costly position. We could find ourselves not only paying much more than we should for coal, but also paying off various judgments (see “City officials sued over coal contract,” p.9).

This calls for someone on the council to step up with the truth. Were council members all completely informed, or was their decision being guided to one supplier?

I call on the council to provide the facts.

Jerald JacobsSpringfield

HARASSMENT IN CONGRESS

In 1997, The Office of Compliance was created to handle in-house labor complaints, including sexual harassment and discrimination for Congress and its staff. The office was created under the aegis of the Congressional Accountability Act of 1995, and more than $17 million has been paid out of treasury funds, including $1 million for eight transgressions this year alone. This is public record, but for some inexplicable reason it isn’t published.

Representative Jackie Speier, D-California, has proposed legislation to make public the names of members of Congress and staff for which the $17 million has been paid out, the amount, and the details of the transgressions. Victims were required to sign a nondisclosure agreement. There seems to be a concerted effort to keep this info from the public past the 2018 elections, if not into perpetuity.

Here is the problem: Anyone running against an incumbent member of Congress can say he or she was one of the people for which a sexual harassment claim and payout was made, and the innocent will not be able to prove otherwise until the Office of Compliance information is made public.

Rep Lou Guiterrrez, an Illinois Democrat, was making plans for re-election but suddenly decided to retire at the same time of the Conyers and Franken imbroglio. How do we know Guiterrez was not one of the sexual harassment malefactors? Until the information is made public, it is assumed all members of Congress are guilty, and the innocent, if any, should be hanging from the congressional chandeliers screaming to release the OOC documents. See the problem?

The release of this information is a test of whether we have a constitutional republic mirroring the values of its citizenry or we have gone over the cliff, with flags flying, and are now an oligarchy of the elite.

Will Rogers summed it up best when he said, “Congress is our only native criminal class,” and recent polls showing approval ratings in single or low double digits only reinforce such belief.Bill KleinSpringfield